Royal commission into child sexual abuse: Victim made to dress in women's clothing, inquiry hears

A man sexually abused as a child has told an inquiry how a Catholic Brother made him dress in women's clothing and kiss him in the school gymnasium.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the victim, know only as AAJ, was nine years old when he first attended Marcellin College in Sydney's Randwick in the 1960s.

His teacher was John Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, who has since been convicted of paedophilia.

"The thing about Brother Kostka is he was none too discreet," AAJ told today's hearing in Canberra.

"I guess you would call his behaviour 'grooming', or what people would call grooming these days."

This performance would require me kissing someone. The person I had to kiss was Brother Kostka

AAJ, abuse victim

AAJ gave one example where Brother Kostka invited him to the school's gymnasium to prepare for a play.

"The thing was, there was never going to be a play," AAJ recalled.

"Brother Kostka provided me with women's clothes and directed me to get dressed in them. I was dressed as a Mandarin woman. Part of this performance would require me kissing someone.

"The person I had to kiss was Brother Kostka."

AAJ said he never considered telling anyone because he was frightened.

"The next couple of years at school were just nightmarish," he said.

"If I could have found any way to avoid it I would."

Victim later taught at Marist school in New Zealand

AAJ told the inquiry how he was later allowed an insight into a hidden sexual culture amongst the Marist order.

AAJ said later in life he started work as a teacher for a Marist school in New Zealand.

"I was dealing with the Brothers at lunchtime and after school," he said.

"After school, in those days, there were these huge jugs of very flat New Zealand beer that you would sit around and drink, and the Brothers would talk and I would talk with them."

AAJ: "They would talk of things - I think the expression was 'washing the dirty water off your chest'."

Counsel Assisting Simeon Beckett: "What was that?"

AAJ: "That was a reference to being able to go outside of the chastity, the celibacy vow, and come back, go to confession and get the slate wiped clean."

AAJ told the inquiry female staff would not stay on their own with the Brothers at the school.

"They told me the dangers of being around with the Brothers," he said.

He said one woman told him that he had to remember the Brothers saw themselves as the grooms of Mary.

"'Mary didn't make a very good bedfellow,' that's what she said," AAJ said.

"When I think about the whole issue of celibacy and the cloistered existence of the Marist order and other orders... what I think is that you get the justification for doing things.

"The justification, it would seem to me, with Brother Kostka, would be that woman were out of bounds, but boys weren't.

"I'm not saying that every Marist Brother accepted this and that they thought this was acceptable, but I think there was a culture of accepting things and protecting people that should have never been allowed to develop."

'Brother Kostka destroyed my life': sex abuse victim

The commission is now examining how the Marist Brothers responded to allegations of abuse regarding Brother Kostka and Brother Gregory Sutton at schools across the ACT, New South Wales and Queensland.

AAJ said the abuse by Brother Kostka had destroyed his life.

"He took away from me an ability to have an enjoyable or normal life," AAJ said.

"The reality is my life was pretty disastrous."

Brother Kostka spent two years in prison after pleading guilty in 2008 to several counts of abuse at Canberra's Marist College.

He said as an adult, he never spoke about the abuse for a number of reasons.

"I thought that it was too long ago to actually bring it up," he said.

"I thought that I was better off.

"I would compare what happened to me to what other stories I hear and I think 'Well that never happened to me, so I should just get on with my life'."

Sex abuse victim still gets reunion invitations

AAJ said he still receives invitations to school reunions at Marcellin College.

"They would send me into a complete rage and all I could think about was building a bomb and taking it with me," he said.

"I would never do it, but that's what I felt like doing.

"The only thing I wanted to contribute to Marcellin College was the cost of a bulldozer to push the place over."